The veteran-laden Heat and youthful Houston Rockets are two franchises with clearly different directions in the 2021-22 NBA season, and their recent results reflect that. Miami enters Friday’s showdown on New Year’s Eve with four consecutive wins and 8 of its last 10 overall, while the home team has lost five straight and 9 of its last 11 games, in total.
The Heat are in the top four of the Eastern Conference standings, while the Rockets remain in the basement of the Western Conference.
Yet, upon a closer look, there are reasons for the hosts at Toyota Center to have cautious optimism. The Rockets are coming off a relatively strong showing in Tuesday’s close loss to the Lakers, and they will enter with two full days of rest. Miami also hasn’t played since Tuesday, but for a very different reason — their scheduled game on Wednesday in San Antonio was postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the team.
While Houston currently has four absences due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols, Miami is dealing with far more overall, as evidenced by the postponement due to lacking the league’s requisite eight players. The Heat could have veteran star Jimmy Butler back from a recent ankle sprain, according to reports, which would clearly help. But the Rockets should have a clear advantage in terms of overall roster depth.
As the Heat's outbreak continued to grow today, more COVID-19 replacements were added in an effort to have enough players for tomorrow's game in Houston. The latest from another eventful day for the Heat https://t.co/ug9hmKdgha
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) December 31, 2021
